Sunday, August 23, 2015

I am so pleased to host the inimitable Lois Winston at Type M today. Lois is a USA Today bestselling and award-winning author who writes mystery, romance, romantic suspense, chick lit, women’s fiction, children’s chapter books, and non-fiction under her own name and her Emma Carlyle pen name. Kirkus Reviews dubbed her critically acclaimed Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery series, “North Jersey’s more mature answer to Stephanie Plum.” In addition, Lois is an award-winning craft and needlework designer who often draws much of her source material for both her characters and plots from her experiences in the crafts industry. See the links to Lois' wonderful crafting and writing blogs below.

Characters Who Think Like Their Authors

Assault With a Deadly Glue Gun, the first book in my Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery series, was published in January 2011. Four additional full-length novels and three mini-mysteries have followed over the last four-and-a-half years. The timeframe for each book spans anywhere from a few days to a few weeks. Thus, less than a year has passed in the life of Anastasia and her family. Assault With a Deadly Glue Gun takes place in February. A Stitch to Die For, my newest release, takes place the last week in October and the first two days of November.

In this book for the first time Anastasia is confronted with a murder in her own neighborhood. Halloween also plays a role in setting the stage for A Stitch to Die For.

Like most authors, I’m often asked how much of me went into creating my protagonist. Anastasia and I have many things in common, including a communist mother-in-law, but we’re also different in many ways. Luckily, I don’t have a Dead Louse of a Spouse who gambled away all our money and left me up to my eyeballs in debt. However, in A Stitch to Die For Anastasia and I have something else in common—my hatred of Halloween.

I was a very shy child. Having to dress up in a cheap plastic costume and go door-to-door begging for candy was something I dreaded each year. From a very young age I was pushed out of the house to walk the neighborhood on my own, ringing strangers’ doorbells. If I didn’t come back with a full bag of candy, I was sent back out. Add to that the multiple times I was the victim of egg-hurling, marauding teenagers, and you can understand why I’m not a fan of the holiday.

I tamped down this hatred when my own kids were young, even making their costumes. I also accompanied them as they went trick or treating and never allowed them to approach homes where I didn’t know the residents. As a result, my kids have a much different attitude toward Halloween than I do.

Writing about Anastasia having the same feelings I have about Halloween was a bit of a cathartic experience for me. I still hate Halloween, though, not only for the memories it stirs up but also for other reasons, ones which Anastasia gives voice to at one point in A Stitch to Die For:

“Everything okay?” asked Zack as he unloaded the contents of our cart onto the conveyor belt.I frowned at the bags of Halloween candy he grabbed next, wondering how many of the kids who rang my doorbell Monday night would offer a thank-you. Most of them didn’t even live in the neighborhood and few bothered with costumes—another reason I hated Halloween. “Hardly.”~~A Stitch to Die For
The adventures of reluctant amateur sleuth Anastasia Pollack continue in A Stitch to Die For, the 5th book in the Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery series by USA Today bestselling author Lois Winston.

Ever since her husband died and left her in debt equal to the gross national product of Uzbekistan, magazine crafts editor and reluctant amateur sleuth Anastasia Pollack has stumbled across one dead body after another—but always in work-related settings. When a killer targets the elderly nasty neighbor who lives across the street from her, murder strikes too close to home. Couple that with a series of unsettling events days before Halloween, and Anastasia begins to wonder if someone is sending her a deadly message.

13 comments:

I dislike this holiday intensely In our neighborhood we had to sing something before we got the treat. As an adult I hate answering the door every 5 seconds and as a meanie post an out of candy sign as soon as I get home from work. Bah humbug to halloween

As a child, I had a "take or leave it" attitude where Halloween was concerned. In our Philly neighborhood, there were lots of kids and everyone knew everyone in each house on the block. Currently, with so many parents working, schools pretty much take care of Halloween festivities and few people go "trick or treating" in the evening.

I can understand your dislike for Halloween, being forced out on your own without someone to "watch your back" to keep you from being egged by marauding teens would sour anyone on the event! Now days the beg-a-thon has resulted in busing of large numbers of children from well outside of the neighborhoods (usually later in the evening) as well as older giggling teenage without costumes.

However, since I write vampire novels, I sometimes get in the mood and prepare a faux-graveyard in front of the house with animatronic vampires and put on my own vampire costume (Dracula eat your heart out). Children will pause when the see me sitting at the front door and jump when "one of the dead" pop out of a grave. Of course I invite them in, asking of their blood type, while sipping on blood (tomato juice). I've yet to have anyone willing to enter but doubt they'll be "scarred for life" by the experience. Parents who accompany the children (at least as far as the curb) seem to think it all great fun! (-;

Kathye and Judy, it's nice to know I'm not alone in my feelings about Halloween.

Angela, I don't know if the schools do anything about Halloween around here. When my kids were little, there was always a big Halloween parade around the school neighborhood. Nowadays candy is pretty much a no-no in most schools, though.

Vamp Writer, I'm glad you weren't handing out treats when I was a little kid. You would have scared the caca out of me!

I love Halloween! And I've got great memories of trick or treating, back in the days when you could eat anything and the whole neighborhood planned certain stops because we knew that house always had hot cider or hot chocolate and we could warm up! But I never loved being scared to death. I'm not so sure I would have entered Vamp Writer's house even if I did know who it was! As an adult I've loved Halloween. When I wrote my Halloween novella, I used a true event to that happened to me as the first scene. Yes, I opened the door and dragged some grown guy into my house in a skeleton costume thinking it was my neighbor.

Can't wait to read this book. I love your whodunits because they are great reads and I get to laugh. (Remember I don't like to be scared!)E

I'm older than you but I used to cut eyes and mouth out of a paper bag. One year I bought a clear plastic mask that hugged my face. I put make up on it because I didn't get to wear make-up. A friend of mine wrapped himself in toilet paper to where he looked like a mummy. While I don't like Halloween either I'm not sure why. Maybe it's because I was always scared/worried about my daughter and taking candy from strangers.

We have two streets in our neighborhood, sort of horse-shoeish. There's one way in and one way out. On Halloween we don't let any cars drive through for two or three hours. Kids and parents come from all over the city to trick or treat. I've sat out in the yard and handed out candy just so I didn't have to hear the dreaded doorbell and wonder who or what was on the other side. ;)

You're right--or Anastasia is right--kids don't say trick or treat or please and thank you, but even worse, some of their costumes are questionable. I asked one boy what he was supposed to be all decked out in black with gold chains around his neck and he said a pimp. Ooookay. We gave him some mini-snickers and he ran off to join his mother who was waiting for him in the driveway. Halloween is different from when I was a kid, but so are the kids and their parents.

Sorry, Lois, I was in the opposite camp when it came to Halloween. I was a shy kid, too, but that may be why I adored the idea of dressing up and becoming a character. My parents were very protective, so I didn't have to worry about going door-to-door without backup. My father liked the whole thing, too, so when I was little he'd go around with me. But one of my most vivid memories is of going to the local 5 & 10 in early October just to see all the costumes! Yes, they were cheesy and gaudy, but the neon colors, satin and glitter fascinated me. I adored browsing through them, trying to decide what to "come as" that year. Of course, I occasionally concocted something of my own, especially as I got older. Heck, I would have dressed up and gone door-to-door even if they weren't giving out candy!

We made quite a deal of Halloween, but I can't say I enjoyed it much. In my suburban '50s neighborhood, there were so many kids trick-or-treating that it was like being in the middle of a cattle drive. Houses kept someone permanently posted at the door all evening because there was no break between groups of kids. Now I seldom get a dozen kids come to the door on Halloween and end up with a ton of candy that I certainly don't need to be eating! My husband's family used to go out to the lake and build a bonfire and roast hot dogs. Now, that's Halloween the way the pagans meant it to be!

Rick Blechta writes on Tuesdays

Barbara Fradkin writes on alternate Wednesdays

Sybil Johnson writes on Alternate Wednesdays

John Corrigan writes on alternate Thursdays

Donis Casey writes on alternate Thursdays

Charlotte Hinger writes on alternate Fridays

Frankie Bailey writes on Alternate Fridays

Vicki Delany writes on the second weekend of every month

Mario Acevedo writes on the 4th Saturday of each month

Aline Templeton

Aline Templeton lives in Edinburgh in a house with a balcony overlooking the beautiful city skyline. Her series featuring DI Marjory Fleming is set in beautiful Galloway, in South-west Scotland. alinetempleton.co.uk

Marianne Wheelaghan

Marianne is from Edinburgh. She left home at seventeen. After a heap of travelling, which included living in Kiribati, the third most remote country in the world, she ended back in Edinburgh where she still lives very happily. Her crime mysteries feature DS Louisa Townsend, The Scottish Lady Detective, and are mostly set in the Pacific. Read more about Marianne and her books on her blog: www.mariannewheelaghan.co.uk and at @MWheelaghan

Rick Blechta

Rick has two passions in life, mysteries and music, and his thrillers contain liberal doses of both. He has two upcoming releases, Roses for a Diva, his sequel to The Fallen One, for Dundurn Press, and for Orca’s Rapid Reads series, The Boom Room, a second book featuring detectives Pratt & Ellis. You can learn more about what he’s up to at www.rickblechta.com. From the musical side, Rick leads a classic soul band in Toronto. Check out SOULidifiedband.com. And lastly, being a former line cook with an interest in all things culinary, he has a blog dedicated to food: A Man for All Seasonings.

Barbara Fradkin

Barbara Fradkin is a retired psychologist with a fascination for how we turn bad. Her dark short stories haunt the Ladies Killing Circle anthologies, but she is best known for her award-winning series featuring the quixotic, exasperating Ottawa Police Inspector Michael Green, published by Dundurn Press. The ninth book, The Whisper of Legends, was published in April 2013. Visit Barbara at barbarafradkin.com.

Sybil Johnson

Sybil Johnson’s love affair with reading began in kindergarten with “The Three Little Pigs.” Visits to the library introduced her to Encyclopedia Brown, Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle and a host of other characters. Fast forward to college where she continued reading while studying Computer Science. After a rewarding career in the computer industry, Sybil decided to try her hand at writing mysteries. Her short fiction has appeared in Mysterical-E and Spinetingler Magazine, among others. Originally from the Pacific Northwest, she now lives in Southern California where she enjoys tole painting, studying ancient languages and spending time with friends and family. Find her at www.authorsybiljohnson.com.

John R Corrigan

John R. Corrigan is D.A. Keeley, author of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Agent Peyton Cote series, which is set along the Maine-Canada border. Bitter Crossing (summer 2014) will be the first of at least three novels in the series. Born in Augusta, Maine, he lives with his wife and three daughters at Northfield Mount Hermon School in western Massachusetts, where he is English department chair, a teacher, a hockey coach, and may very well be the only mystery writer in North America who also serves as a dorm parent to 50 teenage girls. A Mainer through and through, he tries to get to Old Orchard Beach, Maine, as often as possible. You can see what he's up to by visiting www.amazon.com/author/DAKeeley or dakeeleyauthor.blogspot.com or on Twitter (@DAKeeleyAuthor).

Donis Casey

Donis is the author of six Alafair Tucker Mysteries. Her award-winning series, featuring the sleuthing mother of ten children, is set in Oklahoma during the booming 1910s. Donis is a former teacher, academic librarian, and entrepreneur. She lives in Tempe, AZ, with her husband, poet Donald Koozer. The latest Alafair Tucker novel, The Wrong Hill to Die On (Poisoned Pen Press, 2012), is available in paper or electronic format wherever books are sold. Readers can enjoy the first chapter of each book on her web site at www.doniscasey.com.

Frankie Bailey

Frankie Y. Bailey is a criminal justice professor who focuses on crime, history, and American culture. Her current project is a book about dress, appearance, and criminal justice. Her mystery series featuring crime historian Lizzie Stuart is set mainly in the South. Her near-future police procedural series featuring Detective Hannah McCabe is set in Albany, New York. Visit Frankie at frankieybailey.com.

Charlotte Hinger

Charlotte Hinger is a novelist and Western Kansas historian. Convinced that mystery writing and historical investigation go hand in hand, she now applies her MA in history to academic articles and her depraved imagination to the Lottie Albright series for Poisoned Pen Press. charlottehinger.com

Vicki Delany/Eva Gates

Vicki Delany is one of Canada’s most prolific and varied crime writers. She is the author of more than 25 books, including the Sherlock Holmes Bookshop series, the Year Round Christmas cozy series, the Constable Molly Smith books, standalone novels of suspense, the Klondike Gold Rush series, and novellas for adult literacy. As Eva Gates, she is the author of the national bestselling Lighthouse Library cozy series from Penguin. Find Vicki at www.vickidelany.com and on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/evagatesauthor/

Mario Acevedo

Mario Acevedo is the author of the Felix Gomez detective-vampire series. His short fiction is included in the anthologies, You Don’t Have A Clue: Latino Mystery Stories for Teens and Hit List: The Best of Latino Mystery, and in Modern Drunkard Magazine. Mario lives with a dog in Denver, CO. His website is marioacevedo.com.